The Rolling Stones on Thursday released its first single of new music in more than six years, “Doom and Gloom,” and critics are giving it mixed reviews.

Here’s what Lehigh Valley Music thinks about the song.

The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger

“Doom and Gloom” is classic Rolling Stones, a flat-out rocker that’s the band’s best single in at least 20 years –perhaps the best since 1989’s “Mixed Emotion,” and certainly deserving of inclusion in the legendary group’s lexicon.

Listen here:

It’s classic in the way it burns from the start like a firecracker fuse with a guitar hook that’s both fresh and immediately recognizable as The Stones.

And then Charlie Watts’s thumping, steady drum kicks in –also recognizable, but because it’s so good, the virtual definition of rock drumming.

And then, of course, comes Mick Jagger’s voice – the most expressive of any rock singer ever, with perhaps the exception of Bob Dylan. Yes, as critics have pointed out, these years later, it’s a bit more craggy, a bit more cranky.

But that’s perfect for the song – a much-needed rant against a world gone wrong.

Just listen how Jagger stretches out the line “Hear a funky noise?/That’s the tightening of the screwwwwwws.”

There also are some wonderful lyrics: “Lost all the treasure/In an overseas war/Just goes to show/You don’t get what you paid for.” And “Bowing to the rich/And you’re worrying ‘bout the poor/But you put your feet up on the couch/And lock all the doors.”

It’s reminiscent of 1991’s “Highwire,” a warning about war released at the start of the first Gulf conflict – perhaps inferior lyrically, but better musically. For a better single, you’d have to go back to 1989’s ”Mixed Emotion,” which was the last truly great Stones song.

The band is set to release another Greatest Hits package, "GRRR!," on Nov. 13, and rumors have it playing shows in the United States before the end of the year.

I’m hoping that “Doom and Gloom” is just the start of a final blaze of glory for The Stones – a final burn of intense brightness that’s going to give us a bonfire of new music.

But if, as indeed is possible, this will be the last Stones single, it’s a worthy song, closing with the phrase, “Baby won’t you dance with me.” That’s sort of The Rolling Stones’ mantra: The world’s a mess, but – as the group sang in “Mixed Emotion,” “Let’s go out dancing/Go for the throat.”

Try Mixed Emotions and the song was horrible live which is why the band has played it a total of zero times since the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tours of '89-'90.

Off of Steel Wheels, Rock and A Hard Place or Almost Hear You Sigh were far better and You Got Me Rocking off of '94's Voodoo Lounge is a better song and is what the band has played the most out of since their second chapter of touring began in '89.

"a final burn of intense brightness that’s going to give us a bonfire of new music"

They're releasing two new songs.

Hardly a bonfire of anything. More like a contractual obligation from a band far too lazy to care about what it's fans want.

Posted By: Lefty33 | Oct 14, 2012 2:42:15 AM

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.